Private The Truth Is Far Darker

[Ellayina L'lerim]

Information

Minister of Intelligence, Director of SHADES, Torture & Interrogation Officer​

"Galactic Common" | <"High Nelvaanian"> | ["Essonian"] | ~ telepathic communication ~ | << comm. channel >> ​

Objective: Meet with Tancred
Location: Unknown Location
Equipment: White uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit || Empyrean gland || OPBC-01m

@Tancred L'lerim​

Ella had waited for this moment for a very, very long time. Now that her sister was to become Cesare Demici 's betrothed, she could not yet act against the girl; but her other sibling, Tancred, was finally within reach. Kazian Blackwood, known as Agent Vigilant , had returned from his undercover assignment, once more proving that Ella had been right to allow him back into service all those years ago. It was Kaz who had captured her brother; thanks to him, she would finally be able to execute him. And, perhaps most importantly, Kaz was one of the few in whom she still placed her trust, their shared past binding them together.

Why did the woman hate her younger brother so fiercely that she would have seen him dead just as she had wished for Lilia? The common tale spoke only of their mother’s death. The queen had died when the twins were born, and Ella had never been able to accept the loss; she had blamed the infants and wished them gone as well. To many, this reasoning sounded petty. But the truth… the truth was far darker.

Ella had pondered it more than once: if Meliant had known what truly happened, what would she have thought? Yet she allowed that thought to linger only for a heartbeat before sweeping it aside.

Everyone knew the story of the twins’ mother: assassins had attempted to kill the queen using Sith poison. She could have chosen to survive by ending the pregnancy, or she could risk death and bring the twins into the world. She chose the latter. And when the day came, she died from the birth. But even that was not the worst part.

Ella had been raised in the Ashlan faith. Through both her upbringing and her lineage, she knew that there was life after death. In the Netherworld, a soul might become part of Ashla or continue on in another form. But that had not been Lady Hilda’s fate. The Sith toxin had devoured not only her body, but her very soul. Nothing of her remained; she had been erased, unable to be one with the Force.

There was no afterlife for her. No lingering spark. Nothing. Eina L'lerim-Vandiir had confirmed this when she had attempted to search for the queen’s soul.

Ella knew that if her mother had not carried the pregnancy to term, there might have been time to find a cure for the poison. She might still be alive. But she chose the twins; and Ella had never forgiven them for costing her a mother. And so she intended to grant them the same fate their mother had suffered: utter annihilation.

For this reason she had turned to St. Thomas Barran, asking him to carry out Tancred’s execution. As a saint of the Dark Three, he could offer Tancred’s soul to War, Death and Rebirth, ensuring its final consumption. No afterlife. No return. Just oblivion.

Ella had arranged for the execution to be brought forward, aligned with the other deaths the Empire had orchestrated. But before it happened, she wanted one last thing: to face her brother. To look him in the eye one final time. And to speak.

Thus she now walked through the corridors of the prison complex, each step leading her toward the place where he was kept.

When she entered the chamber, she saw not the child she remembered, but a grown young man. Sith poison had marked both of her younger siblings - Tancred most visibly, Lilia through her hair and fragile health - but their age no longer mattered. Nothing changed how she felt.

"Welcome, brother. It has been a long time…" she greeted the younger man, her voice quiet as she stepped into the cell.

 

[Agent Vigilant]

Ellayina L'lerim | St. Thomas Barran
​

The bright fluorescent lights hurt his eyes, and the constant slight white noise in the air drove him crazy. The imperial's designed interrogation chambers that hyper stimulated the senses, giving subjects a baseline anxiety and uneasiness before the interrogation even began. It was genius, but Kazian hated it. He hated the white uniforms too. It meant he was going into the office, and putting on a show. Things had been easier in the field, and he was struggling to remember that he wasn't in a deep cover operation anymore, and that the office game had to be played. He already taken a covert job for the minister of natural resources, indelibly tying him into politics some day down the line when it was time to harvest the sins he'd sown.

Today though, he was in the office to watch an artist perform. Hanging back against the wall, arms folded, eyes studying the siblings, he watched Ella begin her work. Her grace, her beauty, locked into rigid imperial posture, her cold eyes telling of a pragmatic stoicism holding back a rage of emotions. An artist working her craft, at perhaps its most critical point yet. Kaz knew it couldn't be easy calling a hit on your own brother, even if he was an Ashlan. Submitting him to the executioner yourself...

He wondered what was going through the kid's head. He'd said very little, from the time Kazian wrestled him into arrest, all the way to the fateful reunion. The eye contact between the siblings, he could only assume, was like psychological warfare. Who would snap first? Maybe neither, he figured. If there was one thing he'd learned about Force-sensitives was their superhuman ability for apathy. He wondered what the correlation between Force-sensitivity and psychopathy was...

 

[Tancred L'lerim]

VOICE OF ASHLA

TAGS
Ellayina L'lerim Agent Vigilant

THE TRUTH IS FAR DARKER
I​

OIT Blacksite, Unknown Location,
Unknown Planet, Deep Core Territories (903 ABY)

'A long time? Hah! Yes, of course.... Last time you saw my face was long before the disfigurement.... Well, feast your eyes, and feast well.'
​

Lifting his face to look at something other than his elder sister, Tancred's eyes crossed paths with those of the other person in the room, only finding himself fighting the urge to spit in the agent's direction. A seemingly justified reaction, though only due to the fact the young Saint shared the room with the same man who snatched him for capture, the same man who bound his hands with Ysalamiri-coated handcuffs, immediately nullifying the lad's attempt to counter it. Yet, as much as the urge to spit was stifled, the youth would not drop his gaze, even going so far as to inquire,'So who will it be, Agent? Which of you will be the one to turn the dials, hm?', defiantly goading his enemies into dispensing with their formalities.

'I assume my dear sister here wishes to do more than just watch, though I could be mistaken... One never quite knows where gutlessness leads, or at least, not I.'

It was then, in that moment, when Tancred's gaze returned to that of his sister, even growling,'Mind you, she actually looks like she wants to do it.', before giving in to wry, disdainful laughter. The young Saint, before the incident in the Death Star III's infirmary, had believed (but also hoped) his elder sister could be redeemed with the right application of empathy, but lately, it was becoming apparent that Ellayina was too far beyond the point of no-return, a path from which there could be no Ashlan, nor familial reconciliation. Even thinking about it made the laughter more bitter, as it had been festering in Tancred's mind for as long as he had been in captivity, and without any road to holy, repentant forgiveness, it would become increasingly likely that he would need to end his elder sister's life someday.

 

[Ellayina L'lerim]

Information

Minister of Intelligence, Director of SHADES, Torture & Interrogation Officer​

"Galactic Common" | <"High Nelvaanian"> | ["Essonian"] | ~ telepathic communication ~ | << comm. channel >> ​

Objective: Meet with Tancred
Location: Unknown Location
Equipment: White uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit || Empyrean gland || OPBC-01m

Tancred L'lerim | Agent Vigilant​

All of it spoke of a remarkable degree of trust on Ella’s part, allowing Kazian to be here at all. This was a family matter; although it had not been particularly difficult for her to arrange things in such a way that it also became an Imperial matter. The young man was, after all, a self-proclaimed Ashlan saint, not the first in their family; and the Ashlan faith stood in direct, unyielding opposition to the interests of the Empire. The Jedi were simply Jedi, but the Ashlan Crusade and its fanatical crusaders posed a far greater threat. At least, this was how the woman saw things, shaped by the world in which she had grown up.

There might have been those who would argue that making a martyr of Tancred was unwise, but after the Empire had executed Pietro Demici, such concerns hardly held any real weight anymore. The young saint surely had far less influence than the good old Cardinal ever did. Even so, he was useful enough to send a message to the other Ashlan followers, and to anyone who might attempt to follow in their footsteps. This was how the remnants of the crusade would end as well... destroyed by the hand of the Empire.

When Ella reached the cell, she was only momentarily surprised by how deformed Tancred’s face had become. But she was a professional; she allowed her gaze to rest on her brother’s features for only a heartbeat or two, then sought his eyes. She chuckled quietly at the words the boy spoke. Did he truly believe such things would work?

"Gutlessness? Truly, is that all you can manage? Tancred... I am a L'lerim as well. Insults are as useless against me as they are against you. It is in our blood... perhaps only Lilianna is someone against whom they might accomplish anything." the woman said to the young man, her tone almost gentle. "And they do not work on my agent either, he received an excellent training."

There was not a trace of mockery in Ella’s voice now, only a kind of heavy, shadowed seriousness. She reached toward the panel on the side of the cell door and tapped something into it. A moment later, the cuffs on Tancred’s hands sprang open and fell to the floor. A small gap opened near the ground beneath the energy shield; a tiny droid arm slid out, pulled the cuffs away, and the energy barrier sealed itself once more. The young man was no longer cut off from the Force. Ella continued to look directly into his eyes; his disfigured face stirred neither disgust nor alarm in her. She simply noted, inwardly, that this was the effect the Sith poison had had on him.

"What do you think I came here for today? Why do you think I visited you?" the woman asked him.

After a few seconds, as if to prove that she was unafraid, she lowered the energy barrier and stepped inside. She fully expected the young man to be foolish enough to attack, and she was prepared to fight if needed. But while nothing happened, the woman calmly pulled the cell’s lone chair over, positioned it directly across from Tancred, and sat down with an ease, a composure, an almost queenly elegance.

"Well?" she asked again.

 

[Tancred L'lerim]

VOICE OF ASHLA

TAGS
Ellayina L'lerim Agent Vigilant

THE TRUTH IS FAR DARKER
II​

OIT Blacksite, Unknown Location,
Unknown Planet, Deep Core Territories (903 ABY)

'Well, whatever the reason, the end-result is a test of my pain threshold.... But I can hazard a guess.'
​

As the young Saint lifted his head once more, making sure that his gaze crossed that of his sister, he tried to search her mind for moment, only to find himself scuppered by the effects of his poison coursing through his circulatory system, and right down to the last vein and capillary. Tearing at heart, head, lungs and spleen alike, even feeling it bouncing back from the fronts of his toes, it was little wonder that Tancred could do nothing in his condition; all he had was an as-yet untrained endurance, carrying little more experience than the rigors of training, and the agonies of his facially malforming after-effects to a poison of a different sort.

'Do you feel - that this is, perchance, retribution? Is your presence, here, purposed toward punishment, something to that effect? That would be my guess, though I would know more without this heretic FILTH in my veins!'

​

Already trying to struggle out from his position, it would be obvious to his tormentors that nothing else could be done, and yet, the Saint would try another few times before giving up for a while, seemingly turning the ordeal into a matter of training, strength and mettle. This would work somewhat to the lad's benefit, as it was owed to a mentor he believed was dead, making the lessons that Yorunarr passed down stick all the more profoundly in the mind, and all in the nick of time. Giving Tancred all the more confidence in the moments preceding his torture, fully aware of the look in Ella's eye (and all that it meant) when he concluded,'Sister, I hope for your sake that you have your reasons.... You ought to know there is no redemption for blind malice!', trailing off to struggle once more with the poison stupor.

Obstinance would seal his lips for now, but the OIT had their methods of rectifying stubborn willfulness.

 

[Ellayina L'lerim]

Information

Minister of Intelligence, Director of SHADES, Torture & Interrogation Officer​

"Galactic Common" | <"High Nelvaanian"> | ["Essonian"] | ~ telepathic communication ~ | << comm. channel >> ​

Objective: Meet with Tancred
Location: Unknown Location
Equipment: White uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit || Empyrean gland || OPBC-01m

Tancred L'lerim | Agent Vigilant​

At the young man’s words, Ella let out a bitter laugh, clenching her fist for a moment to suppress the urge to strike him. For a few seconds, she wondered whether the twins had ever known what they had caused. Had their father ever told them that with their birth they had taken Aaven’s brightest star; not only from their family, but from their people as well? Their mother had also been a priestess, one who devoted much of her life to charity; the people loved her and mourned her for a long time after her death. When the laughter finally faded, the woman looked at her younger brother, a mocking smile curling her lips.

“Oh, poor little baby Tancred has Sith poison in his veins, that’s what made him so ugly…” she replied with profound mockery and disgust. “No, my brother. Your very existence is heretic filth.”

As Tancred began to list his reasons, the young woman raised an eyebrow. She could not tell whether the young man was merely jesting and mocking her, or whether the Lightside had truly addled his mind, as it so often did with others. Their aunt, a neutral Force user, had more than once openly stated that the Lightside was just as corrupting as the Darkside and Ella had long since agreed with that view. She looked back into her brother’s eyes.

“You need reasons? Is it not enough that you are an enemy of the Galactic Empire? Or that your existence has given millions a reason to mourn, to suffer?” she asked coldly, without emotion. “But if you insist… then let there be another reason. By right of my birth, I sentence you to death for the murder of the Queen of Aaven. I will do what our father never had the strength to do…”

Ella was a master of both physical and psychological torment; yet it was the latter she preferred, finding it more elegant. It was also far more difficult to defend against, and harder to prepare for. She had learned to use the Memory Walk not only to draw forth another person’s greatest fear, but also to transmit her own most terrible sensations and memories to them. And that was precisely what she intended to do now. The woman began to concentrate, reaching out into the Force to find a path into Tancred’s mind; and once she succeeded, she unleashed the images and the feelings…

…memories from Ella’s childhood, things the woman herself had lived through. One of the first images showed the moment their mother had been poisoned by Sith poison, and how it had been said she might die during childbirth. Arguments between their parents followed, born of this fear, inflicting pain upon the little girl. In her memories, their father was not the beloved ruler the media portrayed, nor the one the people believed in; he was a brutally strict soldier, a true crusader. As the pregnancy of the twins’ mother drew closer to its end, she grew ever weaker and sicker, just as Ella herself did. The little girl felt her mother’s pain and agony. Then came the day when Tancred and Lilia were born. Ella felt every single pang of that pain as well and then a final surge so intense it nearly killed the five- or six-year-old child.

That was the moment their mother died, and the Force-bond - already a dyad - between Ella and her mother shattered, leaving behind an impossibly deep, never-healing, gaping wound and void. The little girl’s heart stopped as well, for often such a bond’s breaking is something the other party does not survive. In the end, however, the doctors managed to save the child. Yet when Ella awoke, all that remained was endless pain and emptiness and her father’s coldness. He turned away from the girl to devote himself to the twins, leaving Ella alone with caretakers and droids.

Whenever she tried to go to her father, he harshly ordered her to stop crying, to behave as befit an heir to the throne, and more than once told her that he wished she had been born a stronger son, one he could actually make use of. When the girl spoke to her caretakers or the doctors, they relayed her words back to her father. In time, Ella stopped speaking to anyone at all, swallowing her grief inward as the gaping void filled with bitterness, loneliness, rage, and hatred. Though she was still a child, she kept seeking comfort from her father, but the servants always turned her away, saying he was busy. When she saw him attending to the twins because they had called for him, she would run to him at once, yet Ella was ignored.

Thus, Ella grew up in pain, emptiness, and solitude, unable to trust anyone or anything beyond herself. She withdrew, hardening into the cold, rigid, unfeeling young woman she would become. The Force-dyad never healed, for there was no one to help her and after a time, given how she was treated, she no longer asked for help at all. A L’lerim solves their own problems, or never show weakness; these mottos burned themselves into the woman’s soul, who received almost no tenderness after her mother’s death. Eina tried to help, yet when she told Ella that her mother’s soul had also been destroyed when the twins were born, she could no longer bear to look at the other woman.

Through these memories, Tancred was forced to feel the unending pain, the torment, the loneliness and everything Ella had faced and lived with throughout her entire life, even in this very moment…

“Now do you understand?” the woman asked her brother, once the first round of torment had come to an end.

 

[Tancred L'lerim]

VOICE OF ASHLA

TAGS
Ellayina L'lerim Agent Vigilant

THE TRUTH IS FAR DARKER
III​

OIT Blacksite, Unknown Location,
Unknown Planet, Deep Core Territories (903 ABY)

'WHAT?!'

She can't be serious.
Surely not.
​

The comments of heresy, the insults, the malice in Ellayina's eyes, these were things of which Tancred could shrug off, and just about as easily as any other affront to his existence, but when his charge was given voice, his mind screamed far beyond the point of incredulity. Being condemned for matricide was no small, petty thing, and seeing what he believed was an outright perversion of it's sanctity, as much as he didn't want to believe it, was almost too much to bear without raging beyond reason. But his sister was far from done, and with that look in her eye, the young Saint knew it too, searing it's image far enough in the mind that Tancred could even see it when his eyes rolled upward.

A hatred of which, as much as the Crusader wished it was not so, he could not overcome in his downtrodden, poisoned predicament, and it was only going to worsen as the torture continued. Made all the more apparent when Ellayina reached out through the Force, and inflicted all her pain, her anguish, and even the wrath of her memories upon Tancred's mind, a pain of which she fully-intended to reach the soul, and the young Saint could nothing to stop it. Compelled then to witness the tragedy of his own birth through the elder sister's perspective, to feel Ella's tears flowing from his own eyes, to feel that rueful spite building up over time, worsening with every passing day she spent under the same roof.

'No! This is all wrong! ALL OF IT IS WRONG!!!!'

But that fury only continued to fester in a heart he could do nothing to sway for the better, continuing to hold children responsible for their mother's ultimate sacrifice, it was all too much to bear. Even as his own mind struggled against the weight of his sister's hatred, the very hatred that brought his heart to the brink of breaking, as much as Tancred tried to deny it, could only be described as persecution. But that was not the worst thing about all of it, as it began to appear that the Avatars of the Maw were working through Ellayina's soul in these moments, directing her to orchestrate a fratricide for the perceived crime of killing her mother, as if Ella herself had welcomed the bloody, slaughterous offer from the gods of the Netherworld.

'Now do you understand?'
'You're a monster.... A MONSTEEEEERRRRR!!!!'

[CLINK]
[THUD]
[WOOOOOOOOOSH]
​

Slamming his fists on the duracrete floor, the young Saint sent a shockwave of Defiance across the room, but regretably, the poison in his bloodstream would render that a feeble showing, not even enough to make Ellayina flinch. Not even the captor would express discomfort, still watching from the shadows at the time, and to make matters worse, the very exertion itself would make Tancred light-headed enough to vomit into his own lap, presenting the abdicated princeling with a newer, deeper low into which he was forced to descend. It seemed to matter little and less as to what reaction occurred, and regardless of whether he would be met with mirth or disgust, the Hymnal Voice of Ashla knew it would break him worse than anything else so far.

Almost all torturers would have capitalised on this severe loss of dignity, had they been in Ellayina's position - and Tancred knew it.

 

[Ellayina L'lerim]

Information

Minister of Intelligence, Director of SHADES, Torture & Interrogation Officer​

"Galactic Common" | <"High Nelvaanian"> | ["Essonian"] | ~ telepathic communication ~ | << comm. channel >> ​

Objective: Meet with Tancred
Location: Unknown Location
Equipment: White uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit || Empyrean gland || OPBC-01m

Tancred L'lerim | Agent Vigilant​

Ella did not know - and could not know - what Tancred felt as he was forced to relive what she herself had endured. Over the past nearly two decades, she had learned to live with those emotions. She was capable of suppressing her own pain, helplessness, and feelings. She had learned how to use them in her work, how to turn them against her enemies. She was not Force-sensitive enough to fall to the Dark Side; her telepathic abilities were strengthened by the Umbaran blood of the Kala’myr bloodline, meaning her mental strength came partly from the Force and partly from her "racial" heritage. Ella had learned to blend the two and remain—by her own definition—on the neutral side.

With her blue-green eyes, she watched the younger man writhe, and she was certain her brother was not having pleasant moments now; though that did not trouble her in the slightest. At the very least, Tancred now knew what reality had been like in the Aaveni palace, while he and his twin sister were raised in their sterile chambers, showered with attention and indulgence. A reality far removed from what the two younger siblings had been given. Make no mistake, Ella was not jealous that they had received everything while she had received nothing.

Her suffering stemmed not from the lack of indulgence, but from the tearing apart of the Force-dyad. In truth, she was even glad she had not been raised as a typical pampered noble, as she considered that a weakness. Ella let out a mocking laugh at Tancred’s words, though there was no joy in it; only bitterness.

"I never thought we would agree on something, dear little brother. This is all wrong! And not because of me. Judging by your reactions, you never truly saw or felt any of this…" she said to him.

Ella was not surprised by her brother’s response; by the fact that he considered her a monster for what she was about to do. Still, she found it both ironic and oddly amusing. A flicker of disgust crossed her face as Tancred vomited. She stepped closer, avoiding the mess on the floor, and seized the young man by the hair, forcing his head up and compelling him to look her in the eyes.

"I am the monster?" she asked him. "No, Tancred. I am merely restoring order to the world. Have you ever considered that, of the three of us, I am the only one entirely untouched by anything Sith? You and Lilia still carry the mark of Sith poison to this very day... you could perhaps even be called Sithspawn. And yet…" Her lips curved faintly. "Ashla has a peculiar sense of humour in that regard."

After speaking, she released Tancred’s hair, allowing the young man to remain on his knees or collapse back onto the floor. Any other torturer would likely have kicked the fallen prince—but Ella did not. She may have been an interrogator, but she was also a noble, and even when facing an enemy, she afforded a measure of respect. Her upbringing, the L’lerim blood, had not entirely left her. And not least of all, she had no desire to soil her hands. Instead, she chose her words carefully, so that they would hurt even more.

"Why would I be a monster? Because I allow the destruction of something unnatural? Is that not precisely what your religion and your crusade do, little saint?" she asked, her tone laced with malice.

 

[Tancred L'lerim]

VOICE OF ASHLA

TAGS
Ellayina L'lerim Agent Vigilant

THE TRUTH IS FAR DARKER
IV​

OIT Blacksite, Unknown Location,
Unknown Planet, Deep Core Territories (903 ABY)

'Unnatural, you say?!'
​

They were eye-to-eye by then, but it seemed that nothing but hate resided there, nothing even of rough love between siblings, and Tancred was sure the silent agent could see it from his place in the shadows. Ironically, a state of wrath for both that was certainly the farthest thing from natural, and only not in the the sense of their upbringing and personal leanings, as this also went against the natural order of their blood, and perhaps that most of all. But they had come too far to accord with behaviours that were far more common to those exhibited in their usual, day-to-day moulds, in battle and politics alike, the usual level-headedness was far from the depth of this moment between them, as there was nothing near-meditative as matters that cut so close to the soul.

This wrath was cutting deep, bringing forth their mutual senses of grief, alienation and all things personal animosity, thus when the young Saint instinctively made a barbed point to inquire,'Interesting, what did you find so natural about my first poisoning? THIS ONE, even?! Who would even CONSIDER poisoning the young to be natural?! But enough of that, sister, for that is a mere aside, and I have the answer you seek! EXACTLY WHAT YOU WISH TO HEAR - FROM MINE OWN LIPS!!!!', it only served to further fan that which should only have been vented to the stars. To reveal that which should have been swallowed down, to spew forth with the pride he should have kept within the mind, this would be the farthest thing from therapeutic, though it might have felt that way at the time.

'We don't merely allow destruction, we outright ENDEAVOUR it! WE - slay the Galaxy's monsters! WE - eradicate all-things unnatural! WE - ARE ICONOCLASTS, FOR SHADOW HATH NO CLAIM ON THE STARS!!!!'

However, as much as Tancred would want to take these words back someday, it seemed there was little choice but to fight by the only means he had at his disposal; resolving without weapons, difficult though that would have been, was always achieved with his masters' Defiance guiding the way. It was enough to show he had chosen to rebuild himself at his lowest-point in life, and in an early disregard for the lasting implications, and all the long-term complications that would trip them up along the way, the young Saint would only have one last brotherly thing to do, assuring the beginning of the most-complicated chapter in their House's long, and storied history.

'If ever my mentor nears your position, run.... For Ashla gives him a strength that far-surpasses mine own, and he made no such familial promise to stay his hand against a sibling of mine. Avoid the field of battle when his feet touch base on it's surface - this is my last suggestion to you as a brother.'

Even in the wake of hearing that his days were numbered, even in the moments after learning of Ellayina's intent to have him executed, both attending interrogators would note Tancred's lack of hopelessness, almost as if he still believed someone was coming to save him. At the surface, many would believe these to be the empty threats of a man who knew he was a dead man walking already, the rantings of a lad who understood the grimness of the fate that awaited him, biting back one last time to leave a lasting mark before the end, but in the eyes and ears of those capable of reading between the lines, the sheer lack of that much-needed desperation would be there to behold in crystalline clarity.

 

[Ellayina L'lerim]

Information

Minister of Intelligence, Director of SHADES, Torture & Interrogation Officer​

"Galactic Common" | <"High Nelvaanian"> | ["Essonian"] | ~ telepathic communication ~ | << comm. channel >> ​

Objective: Meet with Tancred
Location: Unknown Location
Equipment: White uniform | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit || Empyrean gland || OPBC-01m

Tancred L'lerim | Agent Vigilant​

"It seems there is more anger and hatred in you than in me, little brother. In the end, you might even escape execution if they realise this and decide to recruit you into the Dark Side Elite. You would not be the first fallen crusader among them." the woman said to the younger man.

The truth was that Ella genuinely found these outbursts intriguing. At this moment, they were like two extremes on an emotional rollercoaster. Within the woman there was coldness, calculation, and a certain detachment, while within the younger man there was volatility. She reflected on how beautifully she and Lilia together embodied every shade of the emotional spectrum. Tancred and Ella, with their greater life experience, both carried anger and hatred within them, but while Lilia had lived sheltered and confined, she had remained pure, seeing the good in everyone.

For a few moments, the woman pondered how fascinating an experiment it would be to place the twins together and observe what kind of emotional range would emerge from them. Or perhaps, if they were together, would they be capable of remaining completely calm? Twins were always intriguing, especially when they were Force users, the woman knew this well, and believed that something similar could be possible here as well. Perhaps, if time allowed, she would truly conduct such an experiment and permit Lilia to see Tancred, although the girl was currently on her way to Aaven with Cesare Demici .

"I truly cannot tell where your anger ends and mine begins… or perhaps it is all yours? Honestly… this is fascinating. Why is there so much anger and hatred within you, Tancred?" the woman asked with genuine curiosity.

Ella truly wished to understand it all. After all, a follower of Ashla was, in some sense, still a Jedi or at the very least a Lightsider, a crusader, or a priest, perhaps a priestess. They were meant to abstain from such emotions. Though the woman knew that there had been something similar within Geiseric as well, who had likewise become an Avatar of Ashla, the Sword of Ashla, even if they were not bound by blood. Could this, then, come from the Kala’myr lineage? The woman found this a plausible explanation. Meanwhile, Tancred responded to her question, once again angrily, which drew a cruel smile to Ella’s lips.

The woman was just about to ask why the young man did not simply kill himself, but Tancred continued speaking. The threats amused her; she found them genuinely entertaining. Of course, the woman was not a coward, but neither did she underestimate her opponents; she assumed the boy might be telling the truth about his mentor being stronger than herself. Even so, she was not afraid; she had been taught how to fight Force users even without being particularly specialised in it. Most Force users liked to rely on the Force and that could be taken from them with ease. At least, if one possessed the necessary resources.

"Thank you for the warning, Tancred. I am already looking forward to meeting him," the woman said to the younger man. "And what would your mentor do without the Force?"

She asked this as well, with a wicked smile. However, she did not wait for the boy to answer, and instead continued.

"So now we are going to play a game. I will ask the questions… and if you answer, then perhaps, and I do say perhaps... I will allow you to see Lilia again. How long has it been since you last saw one another? Almost ten years?" she asked him.

 

[Tancred L'lerim]

VOICE OF ASHLA

TAGS
Ellayina L'lerim

THE TRUTH IS FAR DARKER
V​

OIT Blacksite, Unknown Location,
Unknown Planet, Deep Core Territories (903 ABY)

'Not including the Death Star matter - ten years thereabouts, but perhaps longer.... The poison muddies the mind.'
​

'Bringing me back to your point on anger and hate, terms I know to stem from poisons of another sort.', the young Saint continued pointedly, fully investing himself to digression with the intent of clearing up a matter or two, hoping the right tone would then be set between both parties in the process. Even whilst he shifted uncomfortably on the cold, hard floor, Tancred appeared to care less for his indignities, and a whole lot more for the sake of the point he was trying to make when he finally revealed,'I thought you, of all people, would have known that Ashlan power derives from entirely-different catalysts - such that neither Sith nor Jedi could even hope to comprehend.', caring little and less as to whether this would be treated as intel or not by then.

In the brother's heart, he knew there was no way for either of his sisters to know what it was he was shown in his revelations from Sedes Aurea, no way for either sister to know that it was going far beyond mere matters of faith and belief by then; but he cared not, as time would show Ellayina the truth of Tancred's words, and Lilianna the rewards for her belief in salvation. Time would prove the young Saint a prophet, but it seemed as though it would not occur before his enemies made a martyr of their captive, and yet, just like Lilianna, Tancred also continued to believe his salvation awaited. It was a stark refusal to let Coruscant break him, thus the disfigured Aavenian would continue to form upon the groundwork of his denomination's most-vulnerable beginnings, as if the very framework, was still being strengthened against the winds of Shadow.

Keeping it all together for everyone's sake, pushing on despite increasing likelihood of his Order toppling without it's living Saint - without their one and only bridge to the Heavens.

'In the wake of the two-toned furies, angers of Dark and Light variations, only death, only dismay and destitution await. But of Holy wrath? Only life, only joy and prosperity could flourish so easily when the smoke clears. Thus Holy wrath, as much as the concept disgusts your ilk.... Is just.... And thanks to your little push here today, I know it keeps me alive now - I know that the same wrath is counteracting the filth in my veins.'

~=Just as it does in my soul, dear sister.... The miracles are their own testament.=~
​

Finding more functionality in his Force abilities by then, but still too weak to fight back against his captors, Tancred could only snort with derisive mirth, holding back dry, rueful cackles of delight as he presented his sister with another judgement call. This particular challenge, however, appeared much-less demanding on the moral side of things, and much more toward the side of risk-related concern, especially with a truly convenient escape-exit glowing in plain sight; thus Ellayina would need to weigh up her odds, making a choice between standards of threat-assessment, those being, between the Bureau's and her own discerning merits.

Both siblings were aware that another poison-injection was not an option, they knew that such a decision would render the brother unconscious, and nowhere near responsive enough to conduct the interaction properly. Yet there were other options upon which Ellayina could rely, both siblings knew this too, and with every tool imaginable at the sister's disposal, Tancred was beginning to expect treatment far worse than the most gut-wrenching revelation. After all, compliance could easily be rendered unto any and all malnourished, tethered prisoners, and to such an extreme that he could recall just about every moment his mentors reminded him of this fact, as it was every single time that they promised the young Saint he would be no exception in captivity.

'But yes,"Ten years or so since the twins last saw one another.", note it down - what of it?'